Ishmael - Chapters 5-8

Through chapters 5 to 8, Ishmael first discusses how the Takers have to keep conquering the world but are bound to screw it up because they don't know how to live. As civilized people we tend to look to the prophets to tell us how we ought to live. But in chapters 7 and 8 we learn that there is one fundamental law in the world that keeps the world as it should be. Ishmael points out that as Takers we are attacking diversity and we are destroying the world because we are at war with it. We aren't fundamentally wrong. We are physically destroying the world because we are breaking the fundamental law that states - "You may compete but you may not wage war on the world. The world was not made for any one species."

This law describes how people must live, yet as Takers we don't follow it at all. I found it interesting how Ishmael explains that humans are subject to the law of competition.

For the Takers, Mother Culture demands increased food production. "Increasing food production to feed an increased population results in yet another increase in population." Without expressing an emotional and ethical perception of the starving millions and the absence of population control, Ishmael emphasizes the logical reasoning behind it all. When the narrator asks, "What do we do about the starving millions?" Ishmael replies, "nothing" because all species are subject to famine yet we decide every year to increase food production (though millions are starving) which results in a greater population. We keep growing and keep expanding past our limits. It's disappointing that we don't understand the cycle of everything. If we produce more food, we lead an increased population over and over again. I understand now that we need to focus on population control instead of increasing the production of food in the United States in general.